Medical records, documentation, tracking and order entry system

ABSTRACT

The new system provides: automatic incorporation of dictated text; medical records summary generation in medical English text; parsing dictation to data; prephrased text; automatic generation of medical record as consequence of data entry; automatic notation of allergies, significant medical conditions and pregnancy; pregnancy linking, automatically; security card—close on pull; multi-look grease board; outstanding orders listing for all patients in the department; department layout; room selection excludes occupied rooms; nurses notes to text; nurses notes from physician orders to nurses; lab request screen shows all previously ordered labs; therapeutics; ACLS recording; lacerations; doctor specific prescriptions and medication orders; review of systems; coding level alerts differential diagnosis—filter to sex and age; diagnosis—fractures to text; doctor interval reexamination; patient instructions predicated on what was done; patient instruction video on demand; patient informed consent video on demand; video teleconferencing; electronic signatures; automatic backup and incremental backup with system on-line; critical management reports; and automatic research data extraction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Need exists for immediate triage, reports and medical records which may be generated and supplied to physicians and nurses and which may be translated into patient reports, instructions and prescriptions without delaying or burdening hospital personnel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The new system provides automatic incorporation of dictated text; medical records summary generation in medical English text; parsing dictation to data; prephrased text; automatic generation of medical record as a consequence of data entry; automatic notation of allergies, significant medical conditions and pregnancy; pregnancy linking, automatically; security card close on pull; multi-look grease board; outstanding orders listing for all patients in the department; department layout; room selection excludes occupied rooms; nurses notes to text; nurses notes from physician orders to nurses; lab request screen shows all previously ordered labs; therapeutics; ACLS recording; lacerations; doctor specific prescriptions and medication orders; review of systems; coding level alerts; differential diagnosis, filter to sex and age; diagnosis, fractures to text; doctor interval reexamination; patient instructions predicated on what was done; patient instruction video on demand; patient informed consent video on demand; video teleconferencing; electronic signatures; automatic backup and incremental backup with system on-line; critical management reports; and automatic research data extraction.

The new computer system is accurate, comprehensive and fast. The present invention provides accuracy in documentation and speaks the language of medicine. It provides speed in documentation and captures time for every care giver, not just physicians. The new system provides access to the documentation, eliminating constant hunting for the chart.

The invention generates a comprehensive document; a full and complete medical record. The new system provides triage, exit instructions, patient tracking and every phase of the encounter. Security, privacy and integrity of data are maintained. The data is up to date and pertinent. Every facet of medical care is documented. Pharmaceutical, procedural, diagnostic and patient instruction data are current and state-of-the-art. The system is built from the ground up to meet the unique needs of an acute care environment.

Pertinent and comprehensive patient care data are gathered. The patient's old records are organized for review on subsequent visits. Multiple visit patient data is instantly available. The new system allows physicians to confirm that the right questions were asked, the appropriate exam elements were covered, the likely diagnoses were considered, the appropriate treatment was rendered and consultation was made in a timely fashion. The invention reduces medicolegal liability and assures quality of care. Data is organized in a format that meets HCFA criteria for proper billing for care rendered, meets E&M coding criteria and facilitates CPT coding.

Data is accessible and maneuverable. Rapidly retrievable data generates useful management reports. Most information gathered is stored as data, not as text. The invention provides instant access to massive quantities of patient data. Storage techniques are innovative, allowing simultaneous access and input to the same chart. Interface is provided with outside data sources: registration, lab, X-ray, transcription, ancillary services, central supply, pharmacy and the clinical data depository.

The invention enables research and remote analysis by real-time secured remote access to the database by primary and consulting physicians, as well as other hospital facilities. The acquired clinical data is uploaded to central data warehouses for purposes of statistical analysis and research. With strict maintenance of patient-identifying data, privacy and confidentiality are assured.

The new computer system is extremely intuitive and easy to use. It limits disruption due to new personnel coming into the department. Clinical staff like to use it, which increases user satisfaction. Speeding of patient throughput increases patient satisfaction. Meaningful reports are provided to increase productivity in the acute care setting. Individualized user preferences are accommodated with customized text entries. Doctors and nurses need not have world class typing skills to use the system effectively.

Nursing and physician documentation are combined in the final medical record. The system is transparent to the user, not distracting.

The importance of care giver decision making is emphasized, allowing personnel to use common sense on how and when to record information. The new system allows data entry independence. A user is not required to fill in every blank before proceeding to the next page. A consistent screen “look and feel” reduces user fatigue, and facilitates speed and accuracy.

The overall cost of providing care is reduced to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving world of managed care.

Automatic incorporation of dictated text into the computer generated medical record summary: the summary is formatted so as to make it easy for the caregivers (doctors, nurses, clerks, ancillary services personnel, orderlies, paramedical personnel, and other qualified personnel) to read and understand what is going on with the patient. The medical record also has a specific organization necessary for billing for the care which is rendered. In order to produce a hybrid record in which much of the information is entered by clicking on buttons or check boxes and combine this data with information which is dictated, it is important that the dictation go to the appropriate places in the summary. For instance, a doctor may enter much of the information in the Review of Systems (ROS) by checking boxes. But he may wish to dictate a small unique bit of information which is not present in the ROS screens. This dictated text is automatically inserted into the record at the appropriate location.

Medical records summary generation in medical English text in a standardized format from the data in the database: the nurses and doctors put patient information into the chart using touch screen, mouse, keyboard, or by dictating to a transcriptionist. This is done on entry screens which have standardized look and feel so as to maintain familiarity with the layout and organization of a very large body of information. This information load cannot be reduced if a comprehensive record is to be produced. When the summary is called up on screen or as a printout, all of the patient data is converted into medical English text and reads as if it had been dictated by a nurse or doctor. This includes the parts which were actually dictated. The summary is generated in under three seconds from thousands of clinical facts which were gathered during the process of patient care. The summary can be called up at any time and will show everything that the medical personnel have input about the patient up to that point.

Dictation: the portions of the medical record which are dictated initially are received by the communications server(s), analyzed for patient and content, attached to the proper patient and visit and broken into its component medical parts. When a medical summary is produced, dictated text is attached to the proper part of the medical record. This allows summaries to include all data including information which was initially entered by dictation.

Prephrased text: these computer system data entry screens allow medical personnel to select prestored personalized text phrases to be included in specific medical record components. This makes including frequently used personalized text very fast. Once added to the record, the text is fully editable.

Automatic generation of the medical record as consequence of data entry: in every aspect of the computer system, information that is input in one place is included in all places that are relevant. Many caregivers provide input of information into a patient's medical record. The input is added at different times from different locations. Some of the data comes from other departments. All of the acquired data is collated into a properly formatted medical record automatically. This may be output to a screen as a summary or printed. If the patient dictation returns after the patient is released from the department, the printed record is generated automatically.

Automatic notation of allergies, significant medical conditions and pregnancy: on all medication entry screens and on screens where a nurse executes an order for medication, pertinent medical conditions are noted to prevent medical complications.

Security card close on pull: the computer system has security measures which limits access to the system. Patients, family members, or others are prevented from looking into medical records or entering information. The caregiver approaches a station terminal and inserts a security card. The local station terminal becomes active. The user is automatically identified and areas in which the user has “rights” are made available. All entries are attributed to the correct user. When entries are complete, the card is pulled from the reader. The computer system stores all entered data and the terminal is returned to a protected state.

Patient tracking: Various displays provide the state of the hospital department indicating patient location, doctor assignment, patient status, and order status.

Nurses notes to text: 95% of all the nurses notes are generated by simple selections on screens in the nurses notes section. Little typing is necessary for producing comprehensive nursing notes. Physician orders are automatically queued for nurses, and can be “picked off” to record the activity in the medical record and indicate completion.

Labs, radiology, and tests can be ordered and results automatically returned to the system.

Therapeutics: a comprehensive selection of therapeutics can be entered as performed or generate orders for others to complete.

ACLS recording: ACLS procedures and observations can be quickly entered as they are performed. At any time, a quick summary of procedures performed with elapsed times can be displayed.

Lacerations: documentation of laceration repair allows for procedures performed on each tissue layers on multiple lacerations.

Doctor specific prescriptions and medication orders in the department: each doctor can have a physician-specific list of medications which are frequently prescribed. Both in-department drug orders and prescriptions can be generated using a physician-specific drug list, alphabetical master list, or category-based list. Generated prescriptions include drug-specific patient instructions in English or Spanish.

Review of systems: the system easily tracks review of system responses, automatically grouping answers into appropriate body system and separating pertinent negatives from positive responses. Body system headlines aid in proper coding for care rendered.

Coding level alerts: when patient complaints are entered, the system indicates to users medical information that should be collected to receive proper coding for billing. As the appropriate information is collected, other indicators so indicate. This assures that all pertinent information is entered into the medical record. It aids in increasing the quality of care rendered and in the coding level which can be attained for the care rendered.

Differential diagnosis: the system automatically generates a comprehensive sex and age specific differential diagnosis based on the patient's complaint(s). A preselected multi-level sublist of the most likely diagnoses is included.

Diagnosis: a diagnosis can be selected from the differential diagnosis, or created using body part graphics to indicate injuries.

Doctor Interval Reexamination: each time a physician visits a patient, the system can document the date/time of the visit.

Patient instructions predicated on what was done: the computer system produces discharge instructions to the patients telling them about their illness or injury, about what was done for them, as well as what they should do to care for themselves at home. Warnings are given to patients to return to the medical facility or seek further care when necessary. The instructions also list referrals. In most circumstances these instructions are entered automatically based on the patient's complaints, diagnoses, and treatment rendered.

These and further and other objects and features of the invention are apparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing written specification, with the claims and the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically shows the system network

FIGS. 2-7 schematically show functional linking.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A medical records, documentation, tracking and order entry system 1 is shown in FIG. 1. Fault tolerant file servers 2 and support and backup servers 3 use standard disk drives or fully redundant arrays of drives on each server. A communications server(s) 4, linked to each of the file servers, receives incoming transcription 5. A network has a hub 7 connected to the file servers 2 and 3 by data lines 8. Peripheral terminals 9 are connected to the network in a star configuration with the hub. The peripheral terminals 9 have individual central processing units 10 with hard disks. Touch screen 11, monitors 12, keyboards 13 and mouses 14 are connected to the CPU's. Software resides in the communication server(s) 4, in the dual file servers 2 and 3 and in the peripheral CPU's 10. Patient data is received in the peripheral CPU's via the touch screens, mouses, and keyboards and for storing the patient data in the peripheral CPU's and file servers. A distributed dictation system has inputs adjacent to the CPU's. A transcription system 5 is connected to the multiple inputs and is connected to the communication server(s) 4. Transcribed dictation is received in the communications server(s) 4. The transcribed dictations are placed in an electronic storage bin in the communications server(s) for transferring the dictation transcriptions to the file servers, and storing the dictation transcriptions in the file servers 2 and 3 as text associated with patient data for particular patients. A printer 15, connected to the network, generates reports on individual patients and management reports of system operations of statistical information, doctor related activities, nursing related activities and patient statistics.

A triage printer 16 in the department prints information about patients' complaints, locations and physician and nurse assignments, and prints lists of patients in the order of immediacy. Other printers 17 may be located in other locations within the department or in other departments. A fax 19 is connected to the network 6 to send printed documents over telephone lines to remote locations.

Uninterruptable power supplies 20 supply power to all the local systems. Other departments 21 are connected to the master server 2 to receive data from other departments and to send data to the other departments.

A telephone system 22 provides communications with remote offices such as doctor's offices 23, and a transcription service which serves transcribers 5. Modems 24 are connected to the communications server(s) 4 for communicating with doctors' offices, transcribers and support from the system suppliers. An ISDN data network 25 is connected in parallel with the modems 24 to connect with the supplier's support 26, the doctor's offices 23 and transcribers 5.

The patient record documentation method provides tracking and order entry. File servers provide data and software from the file servers through a network hub and network to multiple CPU's. The patient data is transferred from the CPU's to the file servers. Portions of the record that are unique to particular patients are dictated. The dictation is transmitted over voice lines to a transcription center where the dictation is transcribed. The transcribed dictation is transmitted to the communication server(s), which feeds the dictation transcription to the file servers as text components. The text on particular patients is stored in the file server with the tabled data. Word and sentence generation and coordination software is stored in the peripheral CPU's. Monitors display text sentences generated by the generation software as summaries, together with the text from the dictation transcriptions. The text summaries are sent from the peripheral CPU's to a printer via the local network for generation of printed patient textual reports with sentences generated in medical English text.

Nurses' notes are entered as data on touch screens, mouses and keyboards. The data of nurse's notes is transferred from the peripheral CPU's to the file servers, which stores the nurse's notes information as data. The nurse's notes data is transmitted to the peripheral CPU's, which recompile the data into nurse's notes text, display the nurse's notes as text on the peripheral CPU monitor screens and print the nurse's notes text on the printer.

Prephrased text examples are stored in the file servers. Individual physicians and nurses preliminarily select prephrased text examples as personalized text for compiling with data to produce medical English textual summaries and reports.

Nurse's orders are generated by entering physician orders to nurses at peripheral CPU's. The physician orders are transmitted as physician orders data to the file servers. Physician orders data are stored with the patient tabled data in the file servers. Physician orders data are provided from the file servers to the peripheral CPU's, which display the physician orders data as textual nurse's orders on the CPU's, print nurse's orders, display all outstanding nurse's orders on the CPU's on request and display all nurse's orders specific to the patient. Entering executions of the nurse's orders on the patient display automatically changes the executed nurse's textual notes for display in summaries.

Patient record documentation tracking and order entry starts with logging on to a peripheral CPU, displaying the user's name and the active patient list “grease board,” and showing room location, patient's name and physician, nursing orders, priority and elapsed time of stay, and status of assignment of nurse and physician, ordering of X-rays, labs and tests, nurse's orders, records, dictation and vital signs.

Status is shown in small letters for ordering of X-rays, labs, tests, nurses' orders and dictation, and large letters to indicate completion of X-rays, labs, tests, nurse's orders and dictation transcripts.

Active patient list information is displayed in a department layout.

A screen shows a list of patients waiting to be seen by a physician, in the order of priority. Another display shows patient lists by patient complaints. A further display lists patient lists by those whose charts have not been dictated by the physician.

In FIGS. 2-7 of the drawings, showing the functional linking of the program, the double-line boxes with italic text show actions by users. The heavy line boxes with bold text show program modules. The single line boxes with Roman text show results or output.

Arrows show direct routing.

Moving from left to right across the page, the functions are sub functions or accessed functions from those toward the left. In other words, moving from left to right drills down into deeper functions of the program.

The reference numbers are used to provide additional text detail about the box being referenced. TeleMed denotes the invention.

Broken lines allow the break-up of sections and movement to the left so as not to run out of room moving across the page.

All modules, where appropriate, record data to the medical record with time/date stamps and who performed the function.

101. Security Validation Module—Personnel using the system must clearly demonstrate their identity using a variety of methods depending on the system configuration. Single and multiple passwords, smart card technology, magnetic card or other personal ID technologies. The user's identity establishes the individual “rights” to use various functions. For example, physicians may be the only users given rights to generate prescriptions, nurses could have rights to implement various medical procedures, ward clerks might need rights to order labs, but records clerks may be limited to changing demographic information. When smart cards are used, the system is available only while a proper, authorized card is inserted. Upon withdrawal, the system completes any processes and reverts to a non responding mode.

102. Tracking Module—Medical personnel can quickly see the status of both individual patients and the entire department. TeleMed initially displays an active patient list showing all patients within the department. This display also provides a variety of additional pertinent information such as location, priority, elapsed time since entering the department, order status, vitals status and assigned physician.

This information can be presented in a variety of formats, sometimes with additional information, to help the department personnel quickly obtain the patient tracking information they need. Department layout displays a map of the department showing occupancy (and availability) and physician assignments. Waiting patients shows patients in the order they should be taken. Patient complaints presents patients with their associated complaints. A patient can be selected from any of these displays to enter his/her individual medical record.

Other displays show outstanding orders and the latest vitals on each patient.

This module also controls creation of new visits and, if the patient has never previously visited the hospital, creation of new patient records. New visits can be created without knowing the patient identification. Identification can later be changed here when such information is available.

Historical medical records can be located using a variety of patient information such as name, social security number or previous hospital numbers. Using a name will display all patients with similar names with additional identifying characteristics such as birth date. The specific patient can be selected and previous visits will be displayed with complaints; Selection of a visit provides access to a medical record summary for that visit.

103. Directory Module—Provides a directory of physicians and other services. Can be filtered to physicians with specific specialties and/or managed care affiliations. Physician preferences to be notified if a patient enters the hospital and referral preferences are included.

104. Utilities Module—This sections handles reports, system management, and data maintenance. Management includes editing users, doctor drug prescription preferences, doctor drug order preferences, prephrased text, and other system functions. Reports can be created for any time period. They include department status, department statistics, transcript status, length of stays, repeat visit statistics, mortality, outcomes analysis, etc.

An extensive selection of physician and management reports are available. Since TeleMed stores medical facts as discrete facts rather than text, extensive analysis of an extremely wide variety of medical relationships can easily be accomplished.

A variety of maintenance utility functions are included.

105. Language Generation Module—A key function within the TeleMed program is the language generator. TeleMed stores most medical information as individual specific medical facts rather than as text. When displaying these facts in an on-screen medical summary or on printed medical records, these facts are quickly converted to complex sentence structure similar to physician's dictated medical text.

The language generator builds sentence structure, often containing multiple related facts taken from widely separated points within the program. The program uses a pronoun sequencing technique which produces medical language more like the way medical personnel actually record medical records.

Medical facts are analyzed for responses and type in relation to the patient's sex and age, then converted to initial sentence structure. Where appropriate, the language generator intelligently rearranges the order in which facts were entered to provide the information in a more usable and medically appropriate format. The structure is analyzed and modified if compound sentences can linguistically improve structure. Text such as dictation is analyzed for type and integrated into the previous structure. All text is then analyzed as to the need for headlines and subheads. Needed heads are inserted. The use of bold increased-size headings for major sections and bold or italic subheads allow for quick viewing and easy location of specific facts.

106. To Screen or Printer Module—This module formats text to appropriate output. Manages screen display and movement or manages printer page output.

Output from the language generator module is analyzed and reformatted for the requested output mode (screen or print).

Medical records are printed in a typeset format whereby all medical facts are grouped under the proper medical headings.

The module can automatically fax a copy of the patient's record to the patient's private physician or generate an extra copy of medical records for patients with specific diagnosis or other characteristics for audit.

107. Master Patient Module—Controls routing to all patient-specific screens. Controls specific patient location and priority (passed to Patient Tracking Module). Movement of a patient is noted by a simple selection of available locations (occupied beds are excluded from the selection). Manages billing coding level alerts used to warn medical personnel that the medical record is incomplete to support the level of billing possible based on accumulated facts about the visit. Indicators show what additional information should be collected. Manages master alerting system to warn medical personnel of significant medical conditions.

This module also performs ongoing statistical trend analysis of patient data to alert medical personnel of dangerous long-term trends in the patient's medical condition.

Input and output of liquids and solids by the patient, bed generated patient weight and direct incorporation of monitoring device output are automatically tracked.

Physician electronic signatures can be added to the medical record.

108. Triage Module—This section collects specifics about the medical encounter that pertain to fulfilling legal hospital requirements for triage. Many responses are later intelligently used by the system. Facts such as pregnancy status later cause the system to automatically alert medical personnel as procedures are about to be performed, and warn personnel when orders are given (such as specifying abdominal protection when x-rays are ordered). Upon completion of triage, a triage summary produced by the language generator can be printed.

109. Complaints Module—TeleMed is a complaint driven system. This module manages complaints, differential diagnosis and diagnosis. As complaints are entered, the system begins to automatically modify later functions so department personnel deal with a dramatically reduced array of selections. For example, a comprehensive differential diagnosis is filtered to only those appropriate to the complaint, sex and age, and a recommended multilevel subset (none, light, medium or heavy variations are set by physician preferences) is used as a starting point for physicians to place in the medical record. They can then easily add to or delete from this starting point. Patient instructions relating to a complaint/diagnosis are automatically queued.

When a complaint is selected, an extensive knowledgebase is used by the program to establish parameters the program will follow throughout the rest of the visit. These parameters guide the program in selection of screens (such as to address the appropriate sex), generation of text, billing code levels, order restrictions or enhancements, etc. As the encounter progresses, the parameters are modified by the program to fit new facts collected.

The system can store photos of injuries or conditions taken with a digital camera directly into the patient's medical record.

The final diagnosis(es) can be easily selected from (but is not limited to) the differential diagnosis. Trauma diagnosis(es) can be selected from graphic presentations of the appropriate body parts. For example, a particular fractured bone and the fracture location, characteristics, and type can be indicated on a graphical display of the body part. TeleMed converts the fracture facts into proper medical language describing the injury.

110. Patient History Module—Patient histories and current conditions are collected using a series of screens providing a comprehensive selection of medical facts on allergies, past medical history, family history, social history and a comprehensive review of systems which can be easily selected to indicate positive responses and, where appropriate, pertinent negative responses.

111. Nurse Notes Module—This series of screens allows nurses to easily select ordered procedures which have been performed, indicate other activities they have performed, record vitals, note observations or patient responses. Nurses can also pre-queue patient instructions associated with their activities. Orders made by physicians are queued so nurses can “pick off” an order to fully document the completion of the order. Electronic signatures can be added to a nurse's portion of the medical record.

112. Prephrased Text Module—Medical person specific or system wide blocks of text can be personalized. When selected, text blocks are automatically copied to the appropriate medical component of the medical record. They can then be easily modified in the transcript module, if necessary.

113. Transcript Module—Dictated text can be automatically integrated into the appropriate medical component of the record. Physicians can dictate parts of the medical record to a dictation company or in-house dictation department. The department can send the dictation back to TeleMed by modem or other link and TeleMed will automatically connect the dictation to the proper patient, separate the paragraphs and link them to the appropriate part of the patient's medical record. Once received, appropriate medical personnel can fully edit dictation text to fix errors or enhance the text with additional information.

Medical personnel can type text into the record if they choose, or use personalized prephrased text (text blocks previously entered by the physician) to enter preferred phraseology into the medical record.

114. Review of Systems Module—Review of systems is collected using a series of screens providing a comprehensive selection of medical facts on body systems. Extensive body subsystems are included. Responses can be easily selected to indicate positive responses, and where appropriate pertinent negative responses.

The module manages billing coding level alerts for review of system body systems used to warn medical personnel that this portion of the medical record is incomplete to support the level of billing possible based on accumulated facts about the visit. Indicators show what additional information should be collected. Coding alerts passed to master patient module for overall management.

The module also notifies the alerting system to warn medical personnel of significant medical conditions.

115. Drug Allergies Module—Drug allergies are tracked. The module notifies the alerting system to warn medical personnel of such allergies and where appropriate, drug interactions.

116. Lab Module—This section contains a comprehensive selection of lab tests and procedures to be ordered and tracked. A user can automatically generate orders within the appropriate hospital department and provide the ward clerk with a record of the order. Labels for laboratory test source materials are automatically printed. Lab results can be automatically deposited back into the TeleMed system. The return of results are automatically flagged on the active patient list screen to alert medical personnel.

Lab results which impact medical personnel actions, such as a result of pregnant, cause TeleMed to automatically begin alerting personnel to such conditions and future orders intelligently react to the condition. For example, an X-ray order would automatically indicate that the abdomen should be protected.

Results not received in a department specified time generate an alert.

All previous lab orders for a specific visit can be displayed to help prevent unnecessary duplication.

117. Radiology and Test Module—These section contains a comprehensive selection of radiology and test procedures to be ordered and tracked. A user can automatically generate orders within the appropriate hospital department and provide the ward clerk with a record of the order. Results can be automatically deposited back into the TeleMed system. The return of results is automatically flagged on the active patient list screen to alert medical personnel.

Results which impact medical personnel actions cause TeleMed to automatically begin alerting personnel to such conditions and future orders intelligently react to the condition.

Results not received in a department specified time generate an alert.

All previous radiology and test orders for a specific visit can be displayed to help prevent unnecessary duplication.

118. Diagnostics and Therapeutics Module—A comprehensive entry system for ordering or performing medical procedures. Procedures can be recorded upon completion or orders can be generated. If orders are made, a paper record of the order is created and the order is placed in queue for medical personnel to complete. The queuing system automates recording the completion of the order by personnel performing the task.

When procedures are performed, where appropriate, patient instructions are automatically queued.

119. ACLS Module—ACLS actions are recorded by selecting the procedure or observation and clicking record. Accumulated ACLS actions can be immediately displayed at any time with elapsed times since each action.

120. Laceration Module—TeleMed handles any number of lacerations per encounter and tracks activity performed overall, on each tissue layer, and on each laceration while pre-queuing appropriate patient instructions.

121. Inventory Control Module—This module controls the inventory and access for pharmaceutical and other materials used in the department. An automatic reordering system linked to other hospital systems is included.

122. Video System Module—The video instruction system is managed by this module. On demand, digital video instructions and education programs can be played for the patient through the terminal or an optional alternate screen. Video programming is also included to assist in obtaining informed consent for performing medical procedures.

123. Drug Module—Both a customizable physician-specific drug list and a comprehensive master drug list are available. The physician-specific list allows physicians to prescribe or order medications in their preferred manner, even allowing for the multiple entry of the same drug with different dosing. The master list can be accessed by entering the first few letters of the drug name or selection can be made by drug classification. Medications from the master list provide a default normal SIG for the drug, which can easily be modified. Drug interaction alerts are included.

Prescriptions include complete printed instructions in English or Spanish on use of the drug.

124. Consultation Module—Consultants can be selected from a directory. The directory displays all consultants or consultants filtered for medical specialty and/or managed care affiliations. A record of the consultation, along with timing and documentation of the discussion are recorded. If the consultant does not return a call within a department specified time period, an alert is generated.

125. Referrals Module—Referrals can be selected from the directory. The directory displays all consultants or consultants filtered for medical specialty and/or managed care affiliations. Referrals will print on the patient instructions along with specialty, phone numbers, addresses, and appointment times (if any).

126. Dr. Interval Module—The physician can record each time he/she checks the patient.

127. Medical Summary Module—This module specifies the range of facts, method of display, routing of output and other factors needed by the language generator.

128. Nurse Notes Summary Module—This module specifies the range of facts associated with nurse activity, method of display, routing of output and other factors needed by the language generator.

129. EKG Results Module—This module specifies the range of facts associated with EKG results, sets display to the screen, and establishes other factors needed by the language generator.

130. Patient Instructions Module—Integrated patient instructions are automatically queued based on the patient's condition and what was done. Instructions can be added or deleted from the queue before printing.

Printed instructions include a list of prescriptions, referrals and other significant information about the visit.

131. Work/School Excuse Module—Outputs patient work or school excuse noting services performed, when to return, limitations on activity, and referrals.

132. Demographics Module—This module tracks a comprehensive array of patient demographics including contact information, religion, insurance, employer, guarantor, etc. With insurance companies and government agencies that are equipped, automatic electronic insurance verification is made.

133. Department Clerk Module—Manages status of orders to other departments, and time delay alerts for non completion of orders.

134. Teleconferencing Module—From any point within the system (or from properly authorized remote locations) to any other point in the system, medical personnel can link terminals and have visual conferences. Medical personnel can link directly to a patient's room terminal and answer queries. Physicians can link from their office and have a conference with department personnel or the patient. Physicians in their office can remotely examine the electronic medical record and place orders or enter information into the medical record.

135. Research Module—This module can automatically strip identifying demographics from medical records and produce various analysis for generation of research data. Research protocols and outcome analysis can also be managed.

136. Transcript Text Analysis Module—TeleMed's communications server receives the text from the dictation source. This module analyzes the text for tags which identify the patient, dictating physician, time and date dictated and other data. Paragraphs are analyzed for tags indicating the medical record component associated with each paragraph. The dictation is then broken into paragraph based components, linked to the proper patient, date and timed stamped, and stored.

The module specifies the range of facts, method of display, routing of output and other factors needed by the language generator. The language generator is queued to automatically print medical records upon receipt of a transcript for any outstanding dictation if the patient is no longer in the department.

137. Automatic Backup Module—Provides automatic on-lihe back-up data. At department specified frequency, the module also backs-up all data changed since the last full back-up (interim backups).

138. Scheduling Module—This module manages scheduling of personnel for department coverages.

139. Interface Module—Interface, and data mapping to exchange data with other systems is managed by this module.

TeleMed is a comprehensive system for the automatic generation of a medical English sentence structured medical record as a consequence of individual factual data entry. The look and feel of the program is designed to make the program easy to use by medical personnel having little or no computer experience, and to dramatically shorten the learning curve to become competent in using the system.

Telexed stations with touch screens are placed at each bedside, nurse and physician stations, triage, clerk desks and other appropriate locations.

Use of the system is accomplished by using either the touch screen, keyboard or mouse and selecting a screen button or box to move through the program or enter medical facts. Values can be entered by keyboard. The system intelligently selects appropriate variations of screens to fit the patient (such as appropriate sex).

Personnel using the system must clearly demonstrate their identity using a variety of methods depending on the system configuration. Single and multiple passwords, smart card, magnetic card or other personal ID technologies. The user's identity establishes the individual “rights” to use various functions. For example, physicians may be the only users given rights to generate prescriptions, nurses could have rights to implement various medical procedures, ward clerks might need rights to order labs, but records clerks may be limited to changing demographic information. If smart cards are used, the system is available only while a proper, authorized card is inserted. Upon withdrawal, the system completes any processes and reverts to a non responding mode

Remote access to the system is controlled by “firewall” software routines which require varying security levels up to a forced return link initiated by the system to authorized remote computers or systems.

Medical personnel need to quickly see the status of both individual patients and the entire department. TeleMed initially displays an active patient list showing all patients within the department. This display also provides a variety of additional pertinent information such as location, priority, elapsed time since entering the department, order status, vitals status and assigned physician.

This information can be presented in a variety of formats, sometimes with additional information, to help the medical personnel quickly obtain the patient tracking information they need. Department layout displays a map of the department showing occupancy (and availability) and physician assignments. Waiting patients shows patients in the order they should be taken. Patient complaints presents patients with their associated complaints. A patient can be selected from any of these displays to enter his/her individual medical record.

Other displays show outstanding orders and the latest vitals on each patient.

Historical medical records can be located using a variety of patient information such as name, social security number or previous hospital numbers. Using a name will display all patients with similar names with additional identifying characteristics such as birth date. The specific patient can be selected and previous visits will be displayed with complaints. Selection of a visit provides access to a medical record summary for that visit.

Movement of a patient is noted by a simple selection of available locations (occupied beds are excluded from the selection).

TeleMed tracks a comprehensive array of patient demographics including contact information, religion, insurance, employer, guarantor, etc.

The triage portion of the program allows personnel to begin entering patient facts before knowing the patient identification. This section collects specifics about the medical encounter that are later intelligently used by the system. Facts such as pregnancy status later cause the system to automatically alert medical personnel as procedures are about to be performed, and warn personnel when orders are given (such as specifying abdominal protection when x-rays are ordered). Upon completion of triage, a triage summary produced by the language generator can be printed.

TeleMed is a complaint driven system. As complaints are entered, the system begins to automatically modify later functions so personnel deal with a dramatically reduced array of selections. For example, a comprehensive differential diagnosis is filtered to only those appropriate to the patient's complaint, sex and age, and a recommended multilevel subset (none, light, medium or heavy) is used as a starting point for physicians to place in the medical record. They can then easily add to or delete from this starting point. Patient instructions relating to a complaint/diagnosis are automatically queued.

When a complaint is selected, an extensive knowledgebase is used by the program to establish parameters the program will follow throughout the rest of the visit. These parameters guide the program in selection of screens (such as to address the appropriate sex), generation of text, billing code levels, order restrictions or enhancements, etc. As the encounter progresses, the parameters are modified by the program to fit new facts collected.

The final diagnosis(es) can be easily selected from (but is not limited to) the differential diagnosis. Trauma diagnosis(es) can be selected from graphic presentations of the appropriate body parts. For example, a particular fractured bone and the fracture location, characteristics, and type can be indicated on a graphical display of the body part. TeleMed converts the fracture facts into proper medical English describing the injury.

A series of screens provides a comprehensive selection of medical facts on allergies, past medical history, family history, social history and a comprehensive review of systems which can be easily selected to indicate positive responses, and where appropriate pertinent negative responses.

The nurse notes series of screens allows nurses to easily select ordered procedures which have been performed, indicate other activities they have performed, record vitals, note observations or patient responses. Nurses can also pre-queue patient instructions associated with their activities. Orders made by physicians are queued so nurses can “pick off” the order to fully document the completion of the order.

The ordering section contains a comprehensive selection of labs, radiology procedures and other tests to be ordered and tracked. A user can automatically generate orders within the appropriate hospital department and provide the ward clerk with a record of the order. Results from these departments can be automatically deposited back into the TeleMed system. The return of results is automatically flagged on the active patient list screen to alert medical personnel.

Lab results which impact medical personnel actions, such as a result of pregnant, cause TeleMed to automatically begin alerting personnel to such conditions and future orders intelligently react to the condition. For example, an X-ray order would automatically indicate that the abdomen should be protected.

All previous lab, radiology or test orders for a specific visit are displayed to help prevent unnecessary duplication.

The procedures section is a comprehensive entry system for ordering or performing medical procedures. Procedures can be recorded upon completion or orders can be generated. If orders are made, a paper record of the order is created and the order is placed in queue for medical personnel to complete. The queuing system automates recording the completion of the order by personnel performing the task.

When procedures are performed, where appropriate, patient instructions are automatically queued.

Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) actions are recorded by selecting the procedure and clicking on record. Accumulated ACLS actions can be immediately displayed at any time with elapsed times since each action.

TeleMed handles any number of lacerations per encounter and tracks activity performed overall, on each tissue layer, and on each laceration while pre-queuing appropriate patient instructions.

Both a customizable physician-specific drug list and comprehensive master drug list are available. The physician-specific list allows physicians to prescribe or order medications in their preferred manner, even allowing for the multiple entry of the same drug with different dosing. The master list can be accessed by entering the first few letters of the drug name or by drug classification. Medications from the master list provide a default normal SIG for the drug, which can easily be modified.

Generated prescriptions include complete printed instructions in English or Spanish on use of the drug.

Consultants can be selected from a directory. The directory displays all consultants or consultants filtered for medical specialty and/or managed care affiliations. A record of the consultation, along with timing and documentation of the discussion are recorded.

Referrals can be selected from the same directory. Referrals will print on the patient instructions along with specialty, phone numbers, addresses, and appointment times (if any).

TeleMed automatically integrates dictated text into the appropriate part of the medical record. Physicians can dictate parts of the medical record to a dictation company or in-house dictation department. The department can send the dictation back to TeleMed by modem or other link and TeleMed will automatically connect the dictation to the proper patient, separate the paragraphs and link them to the appropriate component of the patient's medical record.

TeleMed's communications server(s) receives the text from the dictation source. The text is analyzed to identify the patient, dictating physician, time and date dictated and other data. Paragraphs are analyzed for tags indicating the medical record component associated with each paragraph. The dictation is then broken into paragraph based components, linked to the proper patient, date and timed stamped, and stored.

Once received, appropriate medical personnel can fully edit dictation text to fix errors or enhance the text with additional information.

Physicians can type text into the record if they choose, or use personalized prephrased text (text blocks previously entered by the physician) to enter preferred phraseology into the medical record.

The physician can record each time he/she checks on the patient.

Integrated patient instructions are automatically queued based on the patient's condition and what was done. Instructions can be added or deleted from the queue before printing.

Printed instructions included a list of prescriptions, referrals and other significant information about the visit.

A key function within the TeleMed program is the language generator. TeleMed stores most medical information as individual specific medical facts rather than as text. When displaying these facts in an on-screen medical summary or printed medical record, these facts are quickly converted to complex sentence structure similar to a physician's dictated text.

The TeleMed language generator builds sentence structure, often containing multiple related facts taken from widely separated points within the program. The program uses a pronoun sequencing technique which produces medical sentences sounding more like the way medical people actually record medical records.

Medical facts are analyzed for responses and type, reordered and converted to initial sentence structure. Text such as dictation is analyzed for type and integrated into the previous structure. The text is then analyzed for the need for headlines and subheads. Needed heads are inserted. The entire block is analyzed and reformatted to combine and rebreak text lines at appropriate points. The block is reanalyzed and reformatted for positioning on the appropriate output (screen or print).

Medical records are printed in a typeset format whereby all medical facts are grouped under the proper medical headings. Where appropriate, TeleMed intelligently rearranges the order in which facts are entered to provide the information in an extremely usable format. The use of bold increased-size headings for major sections and bold or italic subheads allow for quick viewing and easy location of specific facts.

The medical record is automatically printed upon receipt of any outstanding dictation if the patient is no longer in the department.

TeleMed can automatically fax a copy of the patient's record to the patient's private physician.

The program can also automatically generate an extra copy of medical records for patients with specific diagnosis or other characteristics for audit.

Coding level alerts are used to warn medical personnel that the medical record in incomplete to support the level of billing possible based on accumulated facts about the visit. Indicators show what additional information should be collected.

An extensive selection of physician and management reports are available. Since TeleMed stores medical facts as discrete facts rather than text, extensive analysis of an extremely wide variety of medical relationships can easily be accomplished.

A variety of maintenance utility functions are included.

A set of wound treatment screens provides a method for documenting multiple layers of repair using different suture techniques on different tissue layers with different suture material.

Each time a doctor visits a patient can be recorded, along with date/time data, by TeleMed.

A graphical representation of all bones in the body can be displayed so specific bones, location on the bone, type of fracture, and other fracture related facts can be indicated. The peripheral CPU stores the fact data and also generates a medical English description of the fracture for review. The CPU sends the data and text to the file servers for storage as diagnoses. Patient instructions associated with fracture repair procedures are automatically queued by TeleMed.

The review of systems uses a series of screens on the peripheral CPU's whereby entries are made by touching or clicking a mouse on the check boxes, thereby recording data about certain specific organ systems in question. That data is then transferred as data to the file servers and is stored as data.

The coding level alerts are a method by which the software on the peripheral CPU generates check marks next to the screen data entry buttons, which notify the treating nurse to go into those screens and enter that specific data. The check marks are generated by the entry of specific complaints made by a patient. Specific check marks are converted into diamonds when sufficient medical data has been collected to meet coding level requirements for that medical component or function in association with accumulated single or multiple complaint requirements.

Pregnancy linking is a methodology by which, if the patient is stated to be or determined to be pregnant, or possibly pregnant, TeleMed automatically alerts medical personnel to take precautions when procedures, such as X-rays are to be performed. TeleMed also automatically calculates the estimated date of completion and gestational age.

Upon completion of the medical encounter, or at any time during the encounter, TeleMed can generate a complete medical English summary of all accumulated information about the encounter. If dictation has been made, TeleMed will automatically process the transcription text into the patients medical record for that specific visit and generate a printed summary.

An example of a complete generated patient report, lab and radiology requests, patient instructions and prescription follows.

EXAMPLE 

1-36. (canceled)
 37. A method for maintaining electronic access to medical tasks that are to be performed or have been performed by medical staff, the method comprising for each task performed on a patient the steps of: adding a first medical order entry, corresponding to a task to be performed on a patient, to an electronic patient database and setting a status indicator on the first medical order entry indicative of a need for completion of the task by medical staff; presenting, via a patient tracking module, a listing of tasks to be performed in accordance with status indicators that identify a need for completion of a specified task; and selecting, by medical staff, the task corresponding to the first medical order entry from the listing of tasks and, upon completion of the task, clearing the status indicator to indicate completion of the task associated with the first medical order entry.
 38. The method of claim 37 further comprising: adding, in association with clearing the status indicator, an indication of procedures performed in association with completing the task corresponding to the first medical order entry.
 39. The method of claim 38 wherein the indication of procedures performed includes a record of observations.
 40. The method of claim 38 further comprising adding the procedures performed in association with completing the task to a patient record.
 41. The method of claim 37 further comprising: adding, in association with clearing the status indicator, an indication of who completed the task.
 42. The method of claim 41 further comprising: adding, in association with clearing the status indicator, an indication of when the task was noted as completed.
 43. The method of claim 37 wherein the presenting step comprises listing a set of tasks to be performed on a particular patient.
 44. The method of claim 43 wherein the set of tasks to be performed on a particular patient are accessed via an electronic greaseboard.
 45. The method of claim 37 wherein the task comprises a nurse's order arising from a physician order.
 46. The method of claim 37 further comprising: presenting patient-specific warning in association with the task corresponding to the first medical order entry.
 47. The method of claim 37 further comprising: associating the task corresponding to the first medical order entry with a particular medical staff member.
 48. The method of claim 37 wherein during the presenting step, a patient entry in a greaseboard view is presented in a distinct color indicative of a task to be completed for the patient. 